Peggy Smedley Show

Peggy says Amazon Go is merging the physical world with the digital world to transform the consumer experience with product sensors that enable shoppers to walk-in and get the products they need without having to wait in line. She says Amazon's work in artificial intelligence will offer new opportunities for businesses with image analysis, deep learning, and much more.

Behrokh Koshnevis, CEO, Contour Crafting, and professor at University of Southern California, talks about his passion for disruptive technologies and how they help reimagine the way things are done. He explains how 3D printing was born in the construction industry and will therefore have the highest potential in creating solutions that will shrink production periods from months to days.

Waqaas Al-Siddiq, cofounder and CEO, biotricity, says the company recently received 501-k FDA clearanc. He explains software and apps can be updated at a much faster speed than hardware, and the company's strategy is to be able to make changes rapidly and innovate. He explains the cardiac market is a massive industry and he is serving a critical piece of the market.

Cara English, CEO, Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies, says in healthcare VR (virtual reality) is primarily used for exposure therapy, anxiety disorders, or PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). She explains the technology can recreate a scene for them that created that particular anxiety when the initial trauma was experienced.

Peggy says her vision for the future is that all the equipment and systems inside a facility will be connected. She explains buildings will be connected to other buildings, and cities will become smarter, but says the challenge is most of these systems don't currently talk to each other.

Peggy talks about motor vehicle deaths during the holidays, and explains motor vehicle deaths are expected to be higher this year. She says if we aren't going to regulate ourselves, others will have to regulate us instead, explaining sometimes we need an extra nudge to make our roads safer.

Peggy says infrastructure is the very fabric of our country, and it is all going to be connected in the future. She explains the construction industry is going to leapfrog many other industries, and help build this smarter and more sustainable infrastructure that is needed to move the Internet of Things forward.

Eli Berman, director of IoT, Starhome Mach, says enterprises want their devices to be always on, and they don't care what is going on underneath. He explains how it helps deliver the service and connectivity that enterprises need, and enterprises should expect mobile network operators to streamline their activities to accommodate only the best services.

Peggy says smart shelves can detect when a product is running low, which means a customer can identify what they are looking seeking. She says beyond the customer experience, the IoT (Internet of Things) can help as retailers optimize business, with one example being RFID (radio-frequency identification) to track items throughout the supply chain.

Rafi Zauer, head of marketing, Essence, says since people are living longer and staying healthy longer, the elderly are being looked after by older children, and they aren't in a position to have kids help them on a day-to-day basis. He explains the connected devices available now are able to assist for a long time and the intelligence is in the cloud.

Peggy asks the question: Is biometrics really ready for primetime? She says given the cybersecurity landscape, it is tempting to fall in love with the concept of biometrics. However, she explains while Google is investing in biometrics, there are a lot of complications to think about and a lot of naysayers out there.

Mohan Sawhney, professor of technology, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, says when we talk about digital disruption, we get carried away with the technology. He says he takes a different view, and focuses on what it means for customers, saying it has to mean something for the customer experience.

Peggy says both Republicans and Democrats need to work together to save manufacturing jobs and increase innovation. She explains what is really needed is an action plan, and the government needs to create the necessary incentives to encourage manufacturers to reinvest in building America's manufacturing. She says, a cooperative effort that includes our infrastructure is required.

Mark Skilton, professor of practice information systems management, Warwick Business School, says technology is changing the way we communicate, productivity and automation, and the use of energy. The convergence of all of these things is the fourth industrial revolution, he explains, and this is where all things are going to begin to connect.

Bassem Hamdy, executive vice president of marketing and enterprise strategy, Procore, talks about how the market is changing, the role of apps and integration, and how contractors need to take advantage of all of this innovation that is emerging.

Henry Purdy, CMO, ConstructConnect, talks about the importance of product integration and how the company prioritizes integration efforts. He addresses how the company works with various integration partners.

Don Henrich, COO, Assemble Systems, addresses the changes in BIM (building information modeling) and VDC (virtual design and construction). He talks about how contractors are leveraging the technology in new and different ways.

Peggy identifies trends related to project management, integration, and mobility. She says effective project management has always been key on construction projects, but what is changing is how technology is leveraged by field staff. She says integration is key in construction, and Procore is addressing this.

Peggy starts the show by talking about biometrics, and says the need for accurate and secure identification of a user's identity extends far beyond just mobile devices. She says authentication in smartphones will pave the way for other applications in homes and cars. She talks about research on brainprints, which uses brain wave responses to different stimuli.

Jeremy Gilbert, cofounder and CEO, Autobrain, says with technology converging, it saw an opportunity to bring connected-car technology to the masses. He explains the device plugs into a standard diagnostic port of any vehicle, and it communicates to anybody that is connected to that car. For example, a parent of a teen driver can get an alert about driving or gas.

Terence Mauri, author, The Leader's Mindset: How to Win in the Age of Disruption, says it has never been easier to waste time on the wrong relationships and social media. He explains every day you have to focus on the MIT (most important task), and that is the key takeaway. In a 24/7 connected world, there is an unrealistic expectation that we should always be at the disposal of other people, he says.

Peggy says the trend toward more technology in the home began more than 10 years ago when AHT (automated home technology) was first being installed in homes. She says what followed was the emergence of devices that offered opportunities to create that smarter home. Looking to the future, she predicts voice assistance will become more common, as artificial intelligence grows, and security will become essential to keep our homes secure all based on an industry working together.

Merle King, executive director, Center for Election Systems, Kennesaw State University, continues the discussion, and talks about voting online. He says voting is different is different from other forms of transactions, and the issue is there isn't anything that is analogous to it in terms of the transaction, and it has to do with the secrecy of the ballot. He explains we are in the infancy of Internet voting.

Peggy takes listeners to the future, predicting a time when voters won't have to go to a polling place at all, and instead this will all be able to be done securely from devices. However, she says first it starts with ensuring we can keep the data secure, and this is what the industry needs to work on in the next four years.

Peggy starts the show by talking about the widespread wearing out of voting machines as a major concern among American voters. She explains voting technology is the next big issue in election administration in the U.S., and elections seem stuck in the past.

Merle King, executive director, Center for Election Systems, Kennesaw State University, says the mechanics of collecting votes has been different in the terms of the sheer volume and velocity of discussion than it has in the past. He explains a voting system is a very specifically designed collection of components that does a simple set of tasks including capture voter intent, tabulate results of the ballot, produce reports, provide auditing, and permit the definition of an election.

Alex Schwarzkopf, CEO, Pillar Technologies, says the construction industry is very reactive, and how do we adjust to strategize? He says since this behavioral shift is new, Pillar is very approachable, and the company has taken a lot of time and energy to make the sensors easy to move and the dashboard really intuitive.

Peggy continues her forward-looking discussion, focusing this week on connected cars and how we can keep hackers out of our automobiles. She says we need to identify how to create a culture that is prepared to handle the vulnerabilities that exist within vehicles

Peggy says, as an industry, we need to jump ahead of the curve and be proactive around cybersecurity. She explains a new study suggests end users are leery when it comes to connected-device security, and there is a need for more education around cybersecurity.

Alex Schwarzkopf, CEO, Pillar Technologies, says the problem the company is attacking is a very small piece of the connected jobsite by deploying a network of smart sensors that are monitoring the changing conditions of the building. He says it can provide insight into early warnings like fire and water. He explains that contractors have a lot of responsibility already, and putting another dataset in front of them can be challenging, which is why Pillar targets the insights.

Peggy talks about how smart cities use better resources, explaining they are more accessible and convenient for citizens and visitors, as well as more economically competitive. She says one of the latest research studies shows that roughly half of government officials say the IoT (Internet of Things) will provide value.

Peggy talks about the future of agriculture, and says a wearable device can detect fatigue and stress of farmers to recognize when they are overworked. She says this is just the beginning, and in the future, everything will become connected, with a data point harvested on a crop being leveraged much later, but the industry needs to come together to make this vision a reality and to help to leverage our youth to understand the Internet of Things.

Padraig Stapleton, vice president of engineering, Argyle Data, says the telecom and mobile industry creates vast amounts of data on a daily basis. Enter machine learning, he says it steps in and looks at the data in any form you want to deploy it in. He explains the work it is doing with Carnegie Mellon University is to detect fraud in the mobile industry.

Ole Mengshoel, principal systems scientist, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, CMU, Silicon Valley, says the development of artificial intelligence has been going on at universities for a while, but it is only recently that there is more commercial interest. He explains the improvement in hardware and improvement of algorithms are driving commercialization.

Jake Fields, CEO and founder, Treeline Interactive, says the company is working with clients and partners that want to leverage the IoT to make their business more efficient. He explains in the past couple years there has been an explosion where people have started to embrace connected devices and the sensors that are feeding the data. Now, it is a matter of identifying how to tie it to the core of the business, he says.

Peggy talks about some of the industrial Internet of Things hurdles and says skimping on security is the riskiest move in the long haul. She explains she can't think of a single industry that can afford to skip the Internet of Things, and therefore can't afford to sidestep security. She addresses the importance of standards in the industrial IoT.

Steve Latham, founder and CEO, Banyan Hills Technologies, says when his company develops a relationship with a customer, it truly is a relationship that helps the client understand the business challenge, and making sure that they aren't looking at IoT just because of the hype, but because it is really applicable. He defines the Internet of Things as taking a device and enabling that device with the appropriate hardware and software, connecting it to the Internet, and remotely monitoring it.

Jay Kim, chief strategy officer, APX Labs, says wearables are the next big thing in industrial workforce technology, replacing things like paper and even smartphones, and explains wearables can become an integral part of a daily job, especially for hands-on workers. He continues that his company is in the business of creating a human working with machines environment, rather than a human versus machine environment.

Ron Konezny, president & CEO, Digi Intl., says machine-to-machine is truly a subset of IoT, emphasizing the remote access. He explains there is a tremendous amount of data that is collected in these applications, and we are hearing about artificial intelligence now because it is impossible to keep up with all the information that is generated. He continues

Peggy says the industrial IoT (Internet of Things) started out as a way to improve operational efficiency, but today it is so much more. She explains the IIOT (industrial IoT) is a tool for finding growth in unexpected opportunities. She talks about some of the new innovations including predictive maintenance and AI (artificial intelligence).

Mike Sicilia, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Construction and Engineering, says it is an interesting and exciting time in the construction vertical, specifically around Internet of Things, as the industry is seeing an uptick in firms using the IoT for monitoring. He explains the growth rate of the IoT in engineering and construction is faster than any other vertical industry right now.

Bryan Kester, director of Internet of Things, Autodesk, Inc., says the technology company has a lab that is working on nanotechnology materials. He explains the costs for the IoT have come down dramatically in the past several months, making it more affordable, and now businesses can scale as a result.

Glenn Laxdal, head of strategy and technology, Ericsson North America, says currently the vision is on enabling autonomous vehicles through the most straight forward way, which is vehicle-to-vehicle communication. He continues, saying that to get to truly autonomous cars, the vehicle needs to see its surroundings, including both short-range and long-range surrounding which is vehicle-to-infrastructure. He says cars need to see what is in their immediate vicinity, as well as what will soon be in their vicinity.

Peggy starts the show by talking about the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's newly released Federal Automated Vehicles policy which sets the stage for best practices and guidance related to autonomy in the transportation industry. She says we won't get there overnight, and we really need to focus on building the infrastructure first. The DOT intends for the policy to be a "living document," based on feedback received from various entities every year, she explains.

Sanjeev Rastogi, business director, Honeywell, says next-generation technology will provide great performance, as well as something that is great for the environment. He says it can be leveraged in the automobile industry to reduce waste, and improve efficiency. He explains the auto industry is always looking to improve fuel efficiency, and one way to do this is a lighter car, which ultimately means less fuel to make it move.

Peggy concludes the month of September by taking a cue from George Orwell, and looks to the future of transportation to determine where the industry is headed. Instead of talking about self-driving vehicles, she takes listeners to the future, and looks at flying cars and levitating trains. She says several companies are already exploring prototypes for flying vehicles—literally taking to the skies within the next few years.

Peggy says Uber is in the middle of setting itself up for something big in both the enterprise and consumer space, and explains Uber has become more of a technology company with one move. She talks about how autonomous vehicles are emerging in ride sharing. She says Uber is the "cool" company helping to "normalize" the idea that cars can and will drive themselves someday, perhaps even someday soon.

Maryline Daviaud Lewett, business development manager, Smart Integrated Infrastructure, Black & Veatch, says we are seeing new types of transportation today, with new electric and hybrid vehicles are coming on the market today. She says the new generation of autonomous cars are coming on the market, and in parallel a lot of companies are focusing on public transportation.

Peggy explains why it is important to understand how we are going to connect these roads and infrastructure. Technology companies and government need to come together to discuss how we are going to build the infrastructure and create autonomous vehicles, she explains.

Marcus Welz, CEO, Siemens Intelligent Traffic Systems, says there is no industry embracing innovation more than the transportation industry, and the vehicle themselves will become traffic information generators. He explains the whole innovation in the transportation industry is driven by the connected vehicle space.